E—Democracy

India has decided to have electronic polls in the next elections for its billion strong population. Though India has used e-voting partially in the previous elections, this will be the first time a Lok Sabha election will be held in the country without the use of ballot papers. The EC (Election Commission) plans to use about 800,000 electronic voting machines. Also, taking note from India's experience, other commonwealth countries such as Malaysia and Britain will be sending representatives to India to see the use of EVM (electronic voting machines) during the assembly elections.

The EC has introduced a new method of polling by EVM. This is a simple, safe and secure method that takes minimum of time. These machines are easy to handle even by an unlettered villager.

Electronic voting  machine 



An EVM consists of two units-a control unit and a balloting unit-joined by a five-meter cable. The control unit is with the Presiding Officer or a Polling Officer and the balloting unit is placed inside the voting compartment. Instead of issuing a ballot paper, the Polling Officer in-charge of the control unit will press the Ballot button. This will enable the voter to cast his vote by pressing the blue button on the balloting unit against the candidate and symbol of his choice. 

EVMs run on an ordinary 6 Volt alkaline battery manufactured by Bharat Electronics, Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India, Hyderabad. Therefore, even in areas with no power connections, EVMs can be used. Infact, the EVMs are manufactured by the above two undertakings. 

EVMs manufactured in 1989-90 were used on experimental basis for the first time in 16 assembly constituencies in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and NCT of Delhi at the general elections to the respective legislative assemblies held in November 1998. 

The EVMs have been devised and designed by Election Commission in collaboration with two public sector undertakings after a series of meetings, test-checking of the prototypes and extensive field trials. 

Each control unit has a unique ID, which is painted on each unit with a permanent marker. This ID will be allowed to be noted by the Polling Agents and will also be recorded in a register maintained for the purpose by the Returning Officer. The address tag attached to the control unit also will indicate this ID. Therefore, there is no question of replacement of any

EVM. 

Role of IT



Scientists and engineers from the Silicon Valley have started a project aimed at developing a PC based voting machine they claim will be easier to use, more tamper-resistant, and cheaper than commercially available voting machines. 

High quality refurbished PCs , only a generation old exist in abundance and have enough power to make great voting machines. More than 25 million such PCs are retired annually in the United States alone. Less than 10 percent of these PCs would be needed for all the voting booths in the US.

The concept has already been demonstrated in Australia, in 2001. The current open-source software development project, EVM, includes participants from around the US and developers from overseas. EVM will differ from the Australian system in several ways. Most importantly, the machine will include a printer from which a completed paper ballot will be produced. It will work with either a touch screen PC monitor or a regular PC monitor and mouse.

The EVM project is using the services offered at SourceForge.net, (world's largest open source software development website), to store source code and documentation, track issues, and manage the project. Consistent with this idea, all aspects of the development of the software are open to the public also. The direct URL for it is

http://sourceforge.

net/projects/evm2003. The demonstration standalone voting machines will be set up at strategic locations, like, in the Silicon Valley. A Web-based version will also be available.

Advantages of EVMs Prevents booth—capturing 



The EVMs are programmed in such a way that the machines will record only five votes in a minute. As recording of votes has necessarily to be through control unit and balloting unit, whatever be the number of miscreants they can record vote only at the rate of five per minute. In half-an—hour, the miscreants can record only a maximum of 150 votes by which time, chances are the police reinforcement would have arrived. Further, the Presiding Officer or one of the Polling Officers can always press the Close button as soon as they see some intruders inside the polling station, this will stop any recording of vote. 

Cost effective



Printing of lakhs of ballot papers can be dispensed with, as only one ballot paper is required for fixing on the balloting unit at each polling station instead of one ballot paper for each individual elector. This results in huge savings of cost of paper, printing, transportation, storage and distribution. Secondly, counting is very quick and the result can be declared within two to three hours as compared to 30-40 hours, on an average, under the conventional system.

EVMs can't be reprogrammed



The microchip used in EVMs is manufactured in the US and it is sealed at the time of import. It cannot be opened and any rewriting of program can't be done by anyone without damaging the chip. There is, therefore, absolutely no chance of programming the EVMs in a particular way to select any particular candidate or political party.

Prevents invalid votes



As soon as a particular button on the balloting unit is pressed, the vote is recorded for that particular candidate and the machine gets locked. This way the EVMs ensure the principle of 'one man, one vote'.

Memory capacity



The control unit can store the result in its memory for 10 years and even more.

Assessing the risks



Some computer experts believe e-voting could actually make fraud much easier. Two big flaws that are identified: First, the machines' software is encrypted in only the most basic ways, so people with access to a machine before election day could easily get into it and, change the program so that all votes for one candidate go to an opponent. The second is that, EVMs produce no paper record of a vote, making recounts impossible. 

Smart cards 



It is being used more and more across the US.

Someone working at a poll site can modify one file very easily on the voting terminal and have votes for one candidate actually count for another candidate 

The act (in US) does not force states to switch to e-voting, but it sets standards for the conduct of elections and the maintenance of the electoral register, which can most easily be met by switching to computers. There are several companies making machines working in a slightly different way. Typically a voter swipes a smart card through the machine, then uses 



a touch screen to cast his or her vote. 

Proponents of e-voting list several advantages-the machines can switch to a language of the voter's choice, they can easily be adapted for use by the blind, they count votes in an instant and they prevent spoiled ballots. 

Source code issue



Earlier this year, it was observed by the researchers that the source code, used in a voting machine made by Diebold, one of the largest manufacturing companies was very poorly written. An ordinary voter could alter the outcome of an election.



The IEEE is working on defining its own standard for electronic voting, as things in India are distinctly different on a variety of fronts:

• Machines are made by a state owned company. No commercial incentive to keep code secret. No litigation frenzy like in
  
  the US.
• Although there is a significant risk of software issues, the value of EVMs in reducing physical instances of vote rigging, cannot be underestimated. 
• It's essentially a matter of convincing the government to make the code open-source based, as that provides the best protection for the reasons already described. And include a paper audit trail of course. 

Paper trail



EVMs should produce a 'voter-verifiable paper trail'-a slip of paper, which the voter can take away, as a receipt-for a record.

Not all machines currently produce these paper slips; and some observers are concerned that without one, there is no record of how people voted other than what's stored in machine's computer memory.

Amardeep Gupta